BARELY a week goes by without a journalist asking Rafa Benitez how he thinks his players will cope with the ongoing off-field distractions.
It is a question which is usually answered with platitudes about how Liverpool’s squad is filled with professionals who are not easily distracted by politics, boardroom battles and daily headlines.
But how the Liverpool players manage to rise above the speculation and the subterfuge is something which is becoming almost impossible to work out.
Like everyone else in Madrid during the week they will have heard all the rumours suggesting that their manager would be leaving after the Champions League clash with Real.
And like everyone else there will have been an element of doubt in their minds about what the future holds for them and the club they work for.
But when it came down to the game they went out and to a man executed their manager’s tactics and produced a performance as professional as any in Europe last week.
It is to their eternal credit that they did so and it also serves to underline just how remarkable Liverpool’s performance was in beating the Spanish giants.
Success is usually extremely difficult to attain without togetherness and somehow Liverpool’s players are managing to create a collective spirit even when other parts of the club are so clearly lacking it.
Should they go on to lift a major trophy this season it will be an incredible achievement because no other set of players in world football are having to deal with the levels of acrimony and distraction that they are coping with pretty much every single day.
It is a question which is usually answered with platitudes about how Liverpool’s squad is filled with professionals who are not easily distracted by politics, boardroom battles and daily headlines.
But how the Liverpool players manage to rise above the speculation and the subterfuge is something which is becoming almost impossible to work out.
Like everyone else in Madrid during the week they will have heard all the rumours suggesting that their manager would be leaving after the Champions League clash with Real.
And like everyone else there will have been an element of doubt in their minds about what the future holds for them and the club they work for.
But when it came down to the game they went out and to a man executed their manager’s tactics and produced a performance as professional as any in Europe last week.
It is to their eternal credit that they did so and it also serves to underline just how remarkable Liverpool’s performance was in beating the Spanish giants.
Success is usually extremely difficult to attain without togetherness and somehow Liverpool’s players are managing to create a collective spirit even when other parts of the club are so clearly lacking it.
Should they go on to lift a major trophy this season it will be an incredible achievement because no other set of players in world football are having to deal with the levels of acrimony and distraction that they are coping with pretty much every single day.
No comments:
Post a Comment